I am positive too, I kind of "know" we'll win this war even with losing some battles. I know what happened (as working with and on sharks and having myself to write about what's happening, conservation, sciences, etc...) and what's happening, and I'm really happy about it. What I wanted to say is, when you sign a petition, well you sign it, and then??? for most of the people, nothing happen, because you don't get a personal email saying : here is what happened with the petition you signed. we almost never hear about effect of petitions. pull people really "in" the fight by giving news. what kind of king will continue sending armies in a battle if he don't even know if it's usefull? Well, OF COURSE, comme petitions and associations do it, but most of the time, I never personally heard anything back about what I signed. or maybe I did by reading on news, but without knowing it was from this or this petition.

I'm glad you "know" about the end of this war. I'm not going to presume an ending to this end as we've lost many great species for lesser things, let alone a big industry of shark fishing and the fins trade. Petitions per se aren't meant to effect change directly but have the people in charge be aware that the population at large is aware and proactive. Politicians only act if they feel their constituents want it or if someone pays them to do it. Actual results may not have the feedback you feel is necessary to encourage participation.Otherwise you would not have spokes persons like Dr Giam from CITES who writes this:

Shark for food: Europe a major culpritLARGELY unknown to the world, Europe has been catching sharks by the millions, making it the major global supplier of shark as a food product. Europe now intends to reduce its shark catch, so there will be fewer shark fins for Asian consumption.As a result of over-harvesting for decades, sharks are now severely depleted in the waters around Britain, Norway and Iceland. Europe now wants to stop catching sharks in the Atlantic Ocean. Between 1984 and 2004, the world's shark catch grew from 600,000 to more than 810,000 tonnes. The European Union (EU) catches 100,000 tonnes of sharks and shark-related species every year.

Sharks now need to be protected from overfishing by the EU. Last month, the EU announced a plan to ensure that EU fisheries 'forshark are sustainable and that their by-catches are properly regulated'.

The EU's plan is to curtail the killing of millions of sharks by member countries for their meat, for example, in serving up fish-and-chips. It will mean the end of 'rock salmon' or 'huss' being sold at fish-and-chip shops as they are derived from spiny dogfish, an increasingly rare shark species.

In Germany, shark meat is sold as 'See-Aal' (sea eel) and belly flaps are smoked to make 'Schillerlocken', a German delicacy. In France, fresh shark meat is sold as 'aiguillat commun' or 'saumonette d'aiguillat'. EU is the largest consumer of spiny dogfishmeat, estimated to be 65 per cent of the world landings.

An EU press statement last February admits: 'In Europe, commercial consumption of shark meat gained widespread acceptance with the advent of commercial refrigeration in the 1950s. The most expensive shark meat is spiny dogfish (Squalus acanthias). Other species that produce valuable meat are shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), the common thresher (Alopias vulpinus) and the porbeagle (Lamna nasus). These and other shark, ray and skate species are used for human consumption in Europe and are favoured as food in France, Spain, Italy, the UK and Germany.

'The main pelagic sharks caught by the European fleet are mako sharks, porbeagle sharks and blue sharks. These species and a few others add up to around 42,000 tonnes of EU catches.

'These sharks are generally by-catches in other pelagic fisheries, primarily surface longline fishing directed at tuna, swordfish and marlin, in all the world's oceans. Nonetheless, 88 per cent of the EU's pelagic shark catches are made by longliners operating in the Atlantic Ocean (68 per cent of shark by-catches). Fins, a by-product, are exported to the Asian markets.

'Fleets from France, UK, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Belgium fish for shallow-water skates and rays, while UK and German operators are involved in fishing on deep water sharks, and vessels from Italy, Greece, Spain, and France catch small sharks, skates and rays in the Mediterranean.'

Taken together, these catches make up more than half the totalshark catches by the EU fleet. The rest is caught by EU vessels throughout the world.

Europe is not the only region where there is widespread catching and popular consumption of sharks. In Australia, 'flake' is a popular fish dish, but unknown to most, it is actually shark meat. A local campaign has been initiated to urge the prohibition of sharkcatching, and ban the sale and consumption of flake.

The world has been led to believe shark's fin soup is the driver ofshark population decline. A usual 'anti-shark's fin' article typically asserts that 'the major contributor to shark population depletion is the demand for fins, mainly for shark's fin soup. It is estimated that nearly 100 million sharks are killed each year to fulfil this demand'.

'Shark populations plunge as a result of traditional Asian delicacy', proclaims the Canada National Post as recently as February 4 this year.

To quote Mr Melvin Foo, a veteran Singapore marine products trader: 'About 30 to 40 years back, much of the (European) fishing industry did not know the value of fins. Most of the boats would go out, fish and bring whatever they caught to the market - usually tuna, swordfish and reef fish. Shark meat was used as a source of cheap protein, or salted to be sold later. Their fins were usually discarded because no one knew the value of them then. In those days, Chinese merchants did not venture beyond the immediate region because the surrounding waters held an ample supply of sharks.'

There always was a huge demand for shark meat in Europe. For example, for fish and chips, dogfish is normally used - a small breed of shark that does not grow beyond 1m.

'Gradually', says Mr Foo, 'traders like us went around educating fishermen (in Europe) not to throw the fins away, but to give them to the wholesalers who would export them to us. What is wrong with sharks' fins being salvaged? These fins might get the fishermen enough money to send their children to school. Previously, they just threw them all away.'

The environmentalists' line that 'we are encouraging fishermen to target the sharks for their fins only and throw away the meat' is, according to Mr Foo, untrue. 'We have to understand how this industry started before we jump to conclusions,' he adds.

Popular media have been manipulated into believing that 100 million sharks are killed each year for only their fins. The EU's plan to curtail their multi-million shark catch is compelling proof of the true contributor for the decline in shark numbers.

Dr Giam Choo Hoo

The writer is a member of the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) Animals Committee and a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, England.

With the board members of CITES and country policies twiddling their thumbs until someone else acts, I'm not sure the war is going to be won.

Drew
Moderator
"Journalism is what someone else does not want printed, everything else is public relations."

"I was born not knowing, and have only had a little time to change that here and there.

Well, I guess we're not speaking about the same victory then having a few hundreeds sharks of each species still alive on earth when shark fishing/finning/whatever stops is kind of a victory, because they'll not gonna continues fishing them when the populations will be that low, and then the populations will grows up again. there several places on earth, and more to come, which are total marine reserve areas, or just "too far" area, and they will survive here.

Like in every single biological prey-predator interaction, there is low and high pics. when the shark fishing will stop because there is "no more" sharks, well they'll grow again. Take the exemple of Acanthaster and Coral reef, every 15 year, massive demographic explosion. coral go down from 60% to 5% living on reefs. no more food for sea stars. no more sea stars. coral grow again, up to 60% in 15 years. coral to 60% = good for acanthaster, massive demographic explosion, etc....

of course, it is out of our little life, probably in a hundreeds thousands years or somethings, but then what, it's only a minute for them. we'll probably loose some species, I'm still hoping to be wrong about it, but "sharks" in general will always be there.

Anyway, if it continue like that I'm probably gonna destroy the human race at some point, so it will be great for them

Interests:I spend most of my time alpine climbing, hiking, mtn. biking, or skiing. When I can get away it is to travel for climbing or diving. Been doing this nonsense for way too long to do anything different.

Posted 18 May 2009 - 10:58 AM

Over the weekend our governor was appointed to be Ambassador to China. I plan to write him a snail mail letter to make it known that shark fin soup is not an appropriate dish.

Signed with this message:
<Since sharks swim long distances, across countries and oceans, we need to get the whole world to realize the impact that demand for fins is killing sharks needlessly. A live shark in it's long lifetime will attract many times the revenue of a dead one.>

Signed with this message:<Since sharks swim long distances, across countries and oceans, we need to get the whole world to realize the impact that demand for fins is killing sharks needlessly. A live shark in it's long lifetime will attract many times the revenue of a dead one.>Thanks,Scott

Hi Scott,

I agree with you for most of the species, but, it seems like some reef sharks really don't move often. low connectivity makes it worst, no allowing the areas where they disapear for a "re-colonization".

so, if you get below the minimum population size necessary for the maintain of the population, most of the reef species will NEVER come back (without us bringing sharks with boats to there).

With Wetpixel’s help (and many others’), the Underwater Channel has achieved its 10,000-signature goal in its petition against shark finning, which will be delivered to Ban Ki-Moon, the UN Secretary-General. David Hasselfhoff and world-champion freediver Umberto Pelizzari both spoke out in support of the petition, which helped in the final push to reach the goal.